Governors' '94 Message: Crime, Crime and Crime

The issue of crime is sweeping the nation's statehouses, with governors sounding like tough-talking sheriffs as they declare that fighting violence is at the top of their legislative agendas.

A review of dozens of State of the State addresses delivered this month by Democrats and Republicans, in large states and small, finds similar if not identical themes. The emphasis was more on locking up prisoners than on rehabilitation. Again and again, the governors talked about cracking down on juvenile criminals.

And in what may foreshadow President Clinton's State of the Union Message on Tuesday, many governors -- from Pete Wilson of California, a Republican, to Mario M. Cuomo of New York, a Democrat -- called for mandatory life sentences for offenders convicted three times of violent crimes. Mr. Clinton is considering endorsing a Federal "three-time loser" law in his address, White House officials said. Guns to Make a Point

To drive home the law-and-order point in his address, Gov. Evan Bayh of Indiana, a Democrat, stunned the audience when he brandished three handguns at the lectern. Saying they had been confiscated from juveniles, he declared, "We must get guns out of the hands of children."

The notion that governors see the issue as important politically is particularly obvious because the oratory from those seeking re-election this year is particularly strong.

Few governors, however, spoke of new resources to match their new emphasis. With little money available to build new prisons or put many new police officers on the street, many of the efforts are intended to redirect resources. The Message Is Sent

Though several speeches touched on education, health care, welfare reform and the economy, the governors were so united in seizing on crime that some tossed off the same applause lines.

Gov. Bruce King of New Mexico, a Democrat: "I want to send a message to the violent criminal, that if you commit the crime you do the time."

Gov. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, a Democrat: "We're sending a message -- if you commit a crime, you will do time."

Gov. Mel Carnahan of Missouri, a Democrat: "If you've done the crime in this state, you will do the time."

Many of the speeches were filled with frightening talk of criminals and warnings that their behavior would not be tolerated. "I was not hired to be Arizona's chief social theorist," said Gov. Fife Symington of Arizona, a Republican. "I was not sent here to sit meditating on Freud or on the latest 'root causes' of criminal behavior. The criminal law deals not with theories but with thugs." 'Hand Me a Shovel'

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Another Republican, Gov. Kirk Fordice of Mississippi, called for $12 million for new prison space in the state. Ridiculing the idea that he could open up prison space by shortening sentences, he said: "It will be over my dead body before that ever happens. I will fight with every breath in my body to see that the criminals we take off the streets serve their time. And if that means we have to build a bigger jail house, then hand me a shovel, stand back and we'll get it built."

In most of the speeches, it was impossible to distinguish the Republican phrasing from the Democratic. Haley Barbour, the Republican Party chairman, accused Mr. Cuomo of mimicking a former Republican Attorney General in his State of the State address, saying he "sounded like Ed Meese."

One Democrat who talked especially tough was Gov. Zell Miller of Georgia. Saying he would not stand still while "thugs take charge of the streets," Mr. Miller proposed mandatory 10-year sentences for violent crimes and life without parole for second-time violent offenders. He also endorsed a requirement that young people between the age of 13 and 17 who commit violent crimes be tried and prosecuted as adults.

"These are not the Cleaver kids soaping up some windows," said Mr. Miller, who is seeking re-election this year. "These are middle school kids conspiring to hurt their teacher, teen-agers shooting people and committing rapes, young thugs running gangs and terrorizing neighborhoods and showing no remorse when they get caught."

Some governors illustrated their points by citing crimes in their own states, or others. Mr. Wilson, who is seeking re-election this year, called the man accused of kidnapping and murdering 12-year-old Polly Klaas an "animal." He added: "Our streets are being stained with the blood of our children, and it's going to stop. Damn it, it has got to stop."

Mr. Symington also cited the Klaas case, saying he had just read an article that concluded that money spent on prisons is wasted. "The author's cause suffered in my case from bad timing," he said. "I had just finished reading an article about Polly Klaas." Seeing Larger Picture

Gov. Barbara Roberts of Oregon, a Democrat, recalled how she and the local police had stopped by a house in Portland on a recent Saturday night that was filled with gang members and some young teen-age girls. "The gang members come and go," she said, "trashing the place, crashing on mattresses in the filthy upstairs bedrooms, dealing drugs, slamming the girls around. The girls treated our arrival, between constant phone calls, with apathy, as if it were nothing unusual."

Alex Castellanos, a Republican political strategist, said the governors' attention to crime was not simply playing politics. States, he said, had responsibility for shaping the bulk of the penal code as well as prosecuting and jailing most prisoners.

"I don't think it's a quick-fix thing," Mr. Castellanos said. "I don't think it's responding to poll numbers. There is an increasing randomness to violence that threatens people, there is vulnerability that wasn't there before. These governors are the front-line guys."

Even so, there seemed to be a rush to mention crime, even in states like New Hampshire, which Gov. Stephen Merrill said was "comparatively free from violence." After citing the state's mandatory minimum-sentencing law as a model, Mr. Merrill, a Republican, said, "We will spend more time in 1994 talking about crime, and we should." ILS>Photo: "We must get guns out of the hands of children," said Gov. Evan Bayh of Indiana. At his State of the State address earlier this month, he held up a gun that he said had been confiscated rom juveniles. (Associated Press)

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A version of this article appears in print on January 24, 1994, on Page B00006 of the National edition with the headline: Governors' '94 Message: Crime, Crime and Crime. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe